it's time to talk about what we learned today.

we found out politico put it and breaking news. the person that is sort of going back and forth with bob wood ward is a hot head. >> yes. he flies off the handle all the time. >> he's a fire breather. an angry man. >> it's gene. >> i have known gene since the 90s. >> gene, gene. he's darling. >> that said, he screamed for about 30 minutes. the threat thing though. >> okay. >> this is fascinating, mika. the journalist of our time said he was threatened and has been around long enough. i guess we weren't there so it's hard for us to judge. >> you can be there by looking at the e-mail threat. >> gene is not a young staff they're came in. you have known him a long time. a great guy and they know each

other. >> i would love to hear from bob. he doesn't read as a threat. >> now with this information, i think the ball goes over to bob's side of the court and it's time for him to respond. gene, gene, the dancing machine. he was great on the show. he and chuck barry. way too early. >> time for a non-holiday version. see you tomorrow. thanks for watching. >> 30 seconds i will never get back. as the clock ticks down to the sequester deadline, the chances are slim to none to find a deal with leaders and you only have to look at what's happened in the states. the top two republicans to realize why we are stuck in the stalemate. pope benedict xvi prepares to

leave the vatican and his departure is over an hour from now. we will have the latest on his emotional farewell and what happens next in picking his successor. then back at home, the day at the supreme court over a challenge to the voting rights act. two big city mayors from states that could be affected by any changes. >> good morning from birmingham, michigan. it's february 28th, 2013 and this is chuck todd. >> i think you are a spartans fan. i saw green. i hope i'm not wrong. the end of an era to the catholic church. unprecedented in modern times. we are counting down to a pope's retirement. the final hours as pontiff. he spent his last day meeting with cardinals and pledging

unconditional obedience to his successor. the arch bishop of new york was in the room and described the meeting on the today show this morning. >> we catholics call him the holy father. the italians call him il papa. to see him fragile and having what i consider to be a remarkably humble and courageous decision, it was very moving and a tender moment. >> two hours from now he will leave the palace and board a white helicopter and makes the short trip to the papal retreat south of rome. at 8:00 p.m. local time, 2:00 p.m. our time, the pope will resign his office. the doors will be shut and the swiss guards will leave and

benedict will begin life. what more about how benedict is spending these last few hours as pope? >> i think the most significant thing that happened today so far is a speech he gave before he met with the cardinals this morning. we weren't expecting him to speak at all. something benedict has done in the last couple of weeks. he has been doing things more off the cuff. this was a scripted speech, but as i said an unexpected speech. it had a very pointed message. there is a lot of speculation about how the vatican will deal with two popes. tonight there will be a new pope elected. benedict made it clear that his unconditional reverence goes to the next pope. that was his attempt to turn down the speculation about who will be in charge of the

catholic church when he retires. i spoke to a lot of people who know him and many vatican watchers of a long, long time say this is a man who did not want to be pope. he is giving it up because he physically doesn't feel he can do it anymore. when he said he is going into a life of prayer and meditation, he means it. he will not meddle with the new guy. chuck? >> a story we will follow all morning long. something you only see once every 600 years. we will be back with you. let's come back to this side of the ocean. we are coming to the end. tomorrow barring something unexpected, the $85 billion sequester will go into effect today. the senate will stage two votes of sorts with the bills. neither have a chance. one presented by senate democrats. >> reduce the deficit and make

you smart and closing wasteful taxes and asking multimillionaires to pay a little bit more. >> less than 48 hours before the clock runs out, all we are offered is a gimmicky tax hike designed to fail. i hope they are not expecting a round of applause for this particular act of political bravery. >> the second bill that may pick up a few democratic votes and lose republican votes is the republican alternative. their alternative will keep the spending cuts while allowing the president to submit his own plan by march 15th for allocating the spending cuts. mr. president said neither has much of a chance of going anywhere. >> whether that can be done in the next two days, i haven't seen things done in two days in washington in quite sometime. >> as we know the parties are barely talking. case and point the meeting at the capital which according to

republican aides lasted one minute. you see there. nada. >> it was a very brief meeting. we talked before the event. >> seven minutes. >> it was a short meeting. >> trying to spin the fallout. they got a little bit ahead of themselves caught in the overhigh when education secretary arnie duncan came to the white house briefing room. >> kids are going to get hurt. the title one teachers and head start teachers. whether it's sequestering, i don't know. >> it turns out it is not. what west virginia is actually doing and that's what he was referring to is sending transfer notices to educators in response to the unrelated change. the bottom line is that we have a stalemate which is not going to be resolved by tomorrow.

>> what the president is doing is asking for a photo op at the last minute. remember what we are talking about. it's $85 billion at a $3.6 trillion budget. no taxes are coming out of this house. i tell you that. >> there is no alternative in the president's mind to balance. >> it is clear that we cannot compromise with republicans and republicans refuse to compromise. >> so there is no meeting today. that meeting is tomorrow after which there is no chance to stop the sequester. given that we are now headed towards tomorrow's deadline, the larger question is why are we here? in every one of the fiscal standoffs, there was a potential solution. it goes back to july 2011 when the president and speaker boehner decided to take their argument on taxes and spending cuts to the ballot box and walked away from grand bargains and each claim they walked, but

they had the election in their back pocket and that's what they were thinking. the campaign was allowed to get the argument. so that's why they came up with the sequester. boehner wanted a way out without raising taxes. republicans fuelled by the tea party and the gains in mid-terms demanded that they would raise the limit only accompanied by equal spending cuts. after agreeing to the cuts, the obama white house can't agree on how to reduce the deficit to raise the debt limit by that much. that's why they came up with the sequester idea. at the root was a fundamental miscalculation. the miscalculation that both sides at the time believe was that there was a majority of republican who is were not going to let the defense cuts hit because that was the one piece of spending that they were for and politically could sell and defend. that turned out to be incorrect.

after the election when negotiations over the debt ceiling were happening, the president won and lost the incentive on republican terms. the white house made an incorrect assumption that republicans would save and negotiated a limited deal with the expiring tax cuts. lending the sequester and increasing the debt ceiling later. again, it was a miscalculation. the escape act that saved the day during the fiscal cliff fight is not there right now. here's why. one of the congressional bodies that democrats control, republicans cannot cut a deal because the top two democrats can't cut a deal. look at what they were front row seats to. they are both up for reelection in 2014 in their states that produced the following in 2010 and 2012. the most glaring examples of what compromise could cost.

rand paul and ted cruz. they are well-understood. senator ron johnson this weekend said what all of us were thinking. >> i don't believe that speaker boehner would be speaker if that happens. i think he would lose our speakership. that is my personal opinion. >> if he does another deal with taxes in it. they are equally ham strung. they are evident at nearly every moment. take yesterday. >> can broadcast from springfield put it this way. hold strong and do not give in to more spending. >> people don't come to texas because they want handouts. they come because they want an opportunity. >> the fact is that everybody involve side acting very rationally, looking through the lens of their own politics. the white house has to stop looking at this if they want to stop sequester.

on this one it's not going to happen. they are going to have to make a calculation. do they want other stuff done and do they have to win every poker hand to win the long gain. how much do they want tax reform and are they willing to make a deal with just spending cuts to get rid of a sequester that is intolerable to get more down the road? ultimately that's the calculation they have to make. the republicans are not going to cut a deal that has any tax increases that replaces this sequester. it is easier for a republican to defend a bad spending cut than it is a good tax hike. we are keeping our eye on the developments at the vatican this morning as the pope prepares to leave for the final time. plus -- >> as a broadcast journalist, i'm obligated to maintain pure objectivity. it doesn't matter that my sister is intelligent, hardworking and compassionate and dedicated to

the people of south carolina. >> a daily run down exclusive. elizabeth colbert bush. why she thinks she can turn a house seat from red to blue. how well does she know her district? a look ahead to the politics planner. what's not on there? no last minute negotiations on the sequester. no big white house meetings. no shuttle sequester diplomacy. you are watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. [ female announcer ] when a woman wears a pad

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here's a bet lot of candidates vying for the seat in north carolina. tim scott was moving over to the senate and became one of the most crowded races with more than a dozen republicans running. it included big names like mark sanford and robert teddy turner, son of ted turner. having a republican in congress since president reagan's first year in office. enter democrat elizabeth colbert busch, she is a business director and mother of and big sister to stephen colbert. colbert is a front runner in a two-person primary. her brother jokingly summed up the race. >> i'm not sure i can support her because she is running as a democrat. a, i take that as a personal a

front and two, there so many great choices on the republican side. >> in a state where the govern nor and both senators and all but one of the members of the house of accerepresentatives rug as a democrat. good morning. >> good morning. >> let me start with the basic question. why do you think to be in congress? >> i want to be in congress because i think it's time to have a common sense approach to what's happening and to represent my district and to stop this extreme behavior and dysfunctional behavior in washington, d.c. >> when you say extreme and dysfunctional behavior, what do you mean? define it? do you mean there is not compromise or do you mean it's more republican fault or democrats? what do you mean by this? >> what i mean is both sides are

digging their heels in and no one is reaching across and speaking with each other. there is no sense of compromise or collaboration going on. it's time to stop. it's time to stop that. >> let me ask ow this sequester and the basic premises has to do with issues with spending. do you believe government is too big or too small? >> i believe in the sequester issue especially if i may speak for district one of south carolina. it's an incredible sense of frustration what's going on in washington, d.c. we are having some economic growth in the district. we have some incredible opportunities in our district and on the cusp of that, we are recovering from one of the worst recessions from the great depression. this is happening and not snag is new and we didn't know about. something that is going on for 18 months. in our district, district one of the state of south carolina, the

impacts are extraordinary. i'm sure that's true for all districts around all of the states and all the country. i'm speaking for district one. >> i understand that. >> the 20% furlough for our defense. >> definitely one of the harder hits when it comes to the defense spending. i will ask you that larger question. if you get to congress, are you going pursue and do you believe we have an issue with the size of government? there needs to be a shrinking of government spending cuts along with some tax hikes? >> i think what we need is to look at what's going on in washington relative to loopholes. relative to fraud and waste and begin with that. that's a hanging fruit and could be addressed immediately. once we get through that, we need to look at where we come to a common ground. >> do you believe on the issues of social security and medicare, in raising the age of medicare or considering that over a

50-year period? bowles simpson would raise eligibility age i think two years over a 40-year period in that time. do you think that's something that should be looked at? >> i think the social security and medicare needs to be protected for our seniors. it's something they paid into and serve and something we need to protect. i don't want to diminish it or have it taken away at all. i will fight to protect social security and medicare. when we look at the issues again, let's go back to where is the waste? let's look at the waste. we need to address what we are doing to control waste and control fraud. you have to begin there. we begin with a level playing field. >> where do you think this waste and fraud is? >> for could be in multiple areas. it could be in duplications. it could be in duplications of

filings. it could be anything. we have to peel back the onion and take a look at where it is. you have to look at these things through modern technology. we need to be able to ensure that we can move the ball forward by looking at ways we can check waste and fraud through modern technology. that's going to take continuous focus on research. we cannot afford to lose those dollars in the sequester. >> going back to medicare and social security. would you be open toration the age? >> we need to start with fraud and then address the other issues. >> have you always been a democrat. you have given to mark sanford in a business, did you always consider yourself a democrat and was your family -- >> i have. yes, i have. i always considered myself a democrat. i consider myself a democrat

along with the john sprat fritz hollings lines. the kennedy administration was influential to me. i always considered myself a democrat. >> i have to ask at the thanksgiving dinner table, is politics always a topic of conversation around the colbert household? >> politics is an interest because it was part of our lives in washington, d.c. where local news was national news. it was part of our lives just by where we were located. politics is a fascinating subject and we talked about it around the table along with many other things. >> let me do the fun part. better know your district. make it multiple choice. let me start with charleston was founded in 1870, 1770, 1670.

>> i would say b. >> they got you there. it's c. 1670. >> i'm sorry. i thought 1670 was b. >> fair enough. >> it's 1670. >> let me go to 1670. charleston is the home to one of the following historic firsts. the first public college, the first military college, or the first all women's school? >> the first public college. >> very nice. ding, ding, ding. no mishearing there. parts of this movie was shot in charleston. was it beasts of the southern wild, the patriot or the blindside. >> the patriot. >> very nice. look at this. two in a row. >> we will call a a non-answer there. final question.

who has a better fool team. the university of south carolina or clemson? >> wow. i went to the university of south carolina and graduated from the college of charleston and worked at clemson. they are all great. >> you have become a politician. you say what everybody wants to hear. elizabeth colbert busch, we will check on your race. thank you. >> thanks. >> up next, a major policy shift from the white house today. new pressure on the syrian president as secretary of state and john kerry meet with rebel leaders and we are live with a look at what happens when pope benedict xvi steps down in a few hours. first the trivia question with the most recent sitting president to not visit the vatican. first person to tweet the correct answer to #chuck todd.

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[ male announcer ] with no blackout dates, you can use your citi thankyou points to travel whenever you want. visit citi.com/thankyoucards to apply. on the radar this morning, one republican makes a big decision about a senate run and governor chris christie takes his snub in stride. the obama administration said they will have $60 million in aid and provide nonlethal assistance. they provided 54 million $54 mi communications equipment, but this is the first to go directly to the rebel fighters. they met with the syrian opposition leaders and had this to say. >> this new support that president obama has ordered is on top of more than 50 million

that we provided to help the syrian activist organize opposition efforts across the country to be able to communicate with each other and broadcast a message of hope across their country. >> kerry said the decision to give more aid was stepping down and pay the cap for a democratic transition in syria. now to new jersey where chris cristy is taking his cpac snub in stride. >> i didn't know i was not invited until like two days ago when i saw it in the news. listen, i wish them the best. they have their conference and a bunch of people and they don't want to invite me, that's their call. >> he spoke at the event last year and didn't receive an invite after he annoyed the leaders by praising president obama's leadership during hurricane sandy. in the story we told you about, the republican congressman from

iowa announced he will not seek the open senate seat left open. it potentially paves the way for steve king, a more conservative member to become the front-runner in that senate seat and they should be decided to go there. a bit of a blow. >> in a matter of hours, pope benedict xvi will resign as the head of the catholic church. they enter a state called the chair of peter is empty. evangelical catholicism, deep reform in the 21st century church. he is a vatican analyst. so in a few hours, the pope leaves and what happens? what's going to happen in the next immediate days? we know the conclave doesn't start for a while.

what happens in this period? >> in an hour and a half, a helicopter will lift off and take the pope on a 10 or 15 minute trip out to the southeast. at 8:00 p.m. roam time, 2:00 washington time where you are, the chair of peter will be empty and the church will be without a ledder until the cardinals elect a new pope. it's very important to underscore we will not have two popes after that happens. there is pope, one center of authority and one bishop. next monday, we anticipate all of the cardinals including those over 80 who will not vote in the conclave and begin meeting daily in what are called general congregations to assess the state of the church throughout

the world. you look at the condition of the vatican itself, this is if you will, a kind of primary season when men are measured against what others perceive to be the needs of the church. monday or tuesday we hope they will decide on what day the conclave will begin. many here expect that they will not wait the full 15 days. they will in fact move that up two or three days so that the conclave might begin on march 10th or march 11th or 12th. we will wait and see. my sense is that if this doesn't get resolved in two days, the conclave could be a rather long process, perhaps as long as two years. >> george, there was one thing the hope said in the farewell audience. i was curious to get your reaction to. the lord has given us many days sunshine and gentle breeze. the catch has been abundant. there have been times when the

seas are rough as in the history of the church has been. the lord seemed to sleep. it just seemed striking to me that a pope would say the lord seemed to sleep. >> chuck accident as you know, pope benedict xvi is a man of the bible and that's an episode with the gospels where the apostles are out on the sea of galilee and the storm rips up and the apostles are terrified. the lord awaits and according to the gospel story, calms the sea and rebukes the apostles for their lack of faith. that's a gentle reminder, i think, from the pope that even when the lord seems to be asleep, he is in fact still governing the church. >> all right. we will be checking in with you a lot over the next few weeks on this historic day and historic time in the history of the catholic church.

msnbc will have coverage in the final hours of benedict. up next, the stream showdown over what many consider the most important civil rights law ever passed. the voting rights act could be in trouble. you are watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] this is sheldon, whose long dy setting up the news starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day.

back to the news.

the supreme court's sharp split was on display and the justices went back and forth over a key part of the 1965 voting rights act and whether or not it is still needed. section five of the law was included to prevent voter discrimination by requiring states and parts of others to get the approval before changing their voting laws. with me now are mayors from two states that could be affected and the democratic in charlotte and the republican mayor of texas, robert black.

thank you both for joining me. i want to start with you because you are definitely part of it. charlotte is exempted from the voting rights act and parts of texas that is a part of it. what would the fallout be for you and how you conduct elections if the section five is ruled unconstitutional? >> i can't tell you. voting rights act as given our community great ability to have everybody come in and vote. we have 43 polling stations and ten days of early voting. you can vote anywhere. not prior to the election. i personally don't think the voting rights act is going to be appealed. any part of it. >> you don't think it should be? >> right. >> fair enough. mayor, do you think it's still needed? one of the arguments that the alabama folks are making is that

the country elected an african-american president and what the voting rights act intended to do is not needed anymore. what do you say to that? >> in a state that has not passed a voter id bill and expected to this season, it really raises concerns for me. what the voting rights act and particularly section five was intended to do was to prevent changes in voting laws that would impact the ability of minorities to participate. voter laws are being struck down because of that very reason. i worry that section five would eliminate the ability for the government to enforce that. >> i want to hold on to the topic dealing with sequester cut cuts. you have been told and do you know what the impact is going to be? >> yes, i do. it will not be the first day. within a year, we will have $3 million budget and that's a lot of money for a community. >> what are is the overall

budget? >> about $130 million. >> it's a cut. >> 3%. section eight is going to lose about 3,000 people qualifying. >> what will happen? >> they have to make other arrangements. it's not a pretty thing. certainly not a pretty thing as far as kids are concerned living in public housing. >> are there cuts you are willing to accept you feel are necessary? are there cuts you would be willing to accept? >> no, i'm not. >> no other cuts? >> no. our budget is tight. certainly it is. congress has the privilege of being able to spend the deficit situation and city dos not. we have to make sure we don't

have a deficit ever. >> some of the impacts you are worrying about, they may have an entire airport getting closed. the tower gets closed. you have charlotte douglas airport, but they have furlough issues. you are saying you are going to get $4 million in cuts. >> we are concerned about a transit project we have coming online that is critical to the city's success that will be swept into the automatic cuts. they are also ripple effects of things like the air traffic control towers. when that happens, airport delays and so forth, we are the 6th busiest in the world, that would be a damaging blow. >> you said there was no cuts you would accept from the federal government. you want to tell republicans and the republican senators from your state, you are asking them to compromise and do something? >> yes, compromise. >> for that means a tax hike for

some people, you are okay with that? >> when they yell at each other and do nothing to solve the problem, it really bothers me. it bothers a lot of people. >> what do they say to you? >> we saw them yesterday and they say it's a bitter fight. it's not over. it won't be over for a long time. >> what did he say to you? >> they are in the same position and when this decision doesn't get made, people come to our doorsteps looking for help. this is critical and we need washington to get the vote. >> have either of you had to raise taxes and would you to replace this money? >> we may have to. it depends. we will have to think about it. mayor fox and thank you both for

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[ female announcer ] ask your doctor about lyrica today. it's specific treatment for diabetic nerve pain. to hear more patient stories, visit lyrica.com. pa. eric kantor is expected to attend the event. they are expected to raise virginia money. a subtle shock that he is sending. just ask me. who is the most recent sitting president not to visit the vatican, the answer is harry truman. eisenhower met with pope john and ever since every sitting president has visited the holy city. how about that. congratulations to today's winner, chase williams. if you have a trivia question for us, e-mail us here at

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every washington showdown has a weird side story, and side show and a weird side show right now is bob woodward at the white house. bob woodward is becoming part of the story in a clash at the white house on his reporting on the sequester. anita dunn, a tomorrow white house director and intimidate for and democratic strategist. i'm going to start with you, politico seems to be having the

ticktock of this. we now have an e-mail. bob woodward said he was being intimidated. he quoted one line from jean spurring who said you're going to regret, you're going to regret this and he took that part and said that he was intimidated. the whole e-mail is out. it's hard to see intimidation in that e-mail. >> it sounds like spurring was walking back. >> he apologized for yelling on the phone. >> i think it really speaks of this really odd debate that we have been having in washington the last two weeks over who thought of the sequester. after all it was something that was conceived, whether it was conceiveded by the obama administration or not, it was approved by bipartisan majorities in congress and they don't know what to do with it and it just resorts to finger pointing. >> they love the idea that the white house is debating a

reporter and not that, that's ultimately what they were excited about. >> maybe it was gene spurling. >> he's an overall stun but the white house who once had rahm emanuel within it's walls that was screaming profanities at the reporters. >> anita, i have got to ask, the first rule of journalism when you're a reporter is that you never want to become part of the story. but another rule of a political communications strategy is don't pick a fight with somebody who can get you by the barrel, in this case bob woodward who's got years of credibility to have a debate with. >> well, chuck, i think that when you have a reporter who is saying things that perhaps are

not as accurate as one would like, you do want to correct that record and i think that this e-mail exchange is a very good example of how washington does get sidetracked into side shows when there are bigger stories at stake. i think the president this week has been trying to keep the conversation focused on what the issues are here. the american people are not actually waking up every morning talking about who threatened who in a bob woodward e-mail. they're saying who in washington are not doing their jobs? >> the aassumption was that there were spending that republicans believed they would fight tooth and nail to save, but it turned out to be a fundamental miscalculation. >> it was a republican miscalculation too. there's the one that invites

chris christie to fund raids and doesn't invite him to the convention. found themselves confronting another lose-lose situation and decided this particular way of losing was less painful than another compromise. >> is it fair to say for a republican to go home and defend a bad spending us than defend a good tax hike cut. >> there no way this is going to change. >> any understanding of the white house strategy is let's find 20 republicans or some small amount from defense districts that might be willing to bend on that. you talk about how it was a bad bet. the sequester was obama betting. >> i go back to the other part of the question i get from some folks who aren't following closely. i point to rand paul and ted

cruise, the top two republicans, they saw that boehner almost lost his speaker ship over the tax deal just three months ago. so when mcconnell and cornyn had front row seats, beating their guys, if you will, whether they claimed full ownership of their guys or not. so there's no way to cut a deal, right? >> he knows that, and they have taken it completely off the table. >> so shouldn't the white house simply come up with an alternative spending cut an go fight tax reform? >> i think that the white house is going, you know, has already cut spending a great deal. i would be shocked if you didn't see an alternative approach come out pretty soon. because the fact of the matter is that the republicans are at such a defensive power right now that the white house has a chance to go on the -- >> historian today politico

about the three amigos, causing problems for republicans. >> my boss rich lowry is celebrating 15 years as editor of national radio. >> how about that. and nita? >> tyler clemente's family, and the clemente's family reintroducing a bill to prohibit bullying. >> this just in, eric cantor says it will not be at the bob mcdonnell-chris christie fund raidser. tomorrow on the show, a deep dive into the politics of electing a new pope. coming up, chris jansing. bye-bye. marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup

lets you hear it... in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. great taste. mmm... [ male announcer ] sounds good. it's amazing what soup can do. a regular guy with an irregular heartbeat. the usual, bob? not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib: atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke. [ gps ] turn left. i don't think so. [ male announcer ] for years, bob took warfarin, and made a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but not anymore. bob's doctor recommended a different option: once-a-day xarelto®. xarelto® is the first and only once-a-day prescription blood thinner for patients with afib not caused by a heart valve problem, that doesn't require routine blood monitoring. like warfarin, xarelto® is proven effective to reduce the risk of an afib-related stroke. there is limited data on how these drugs compare when warfarin is well managed. no routine blood monitoring means bob can spend his extra time however he likes.